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Institute for Democracy Studies (IDS) Deplores Recess Appointment of Gerald Reynolds as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights: New IDS report documents Reynolds' opposition to affirmative action and civil rights "With the recess appointment of Gerald Reynolds as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, the Bush administration has once again revealed its broad plan to re-write the American legal system in the president's own ultraconservative image," declared IDS President Alfred F. Ross. The Office for Civil Rights is among the most important of the federal agencies that oversee and enforce affirmative action policies. The appointment of Reynolds comes just as the Institute for Democracy Studies is releasing a major new study on the conservative forces--political, financial, and legal--that are seeking to roll back decades of civil rights gains in America. Assault on Diversity: An Organized Challenge to Racial and Gender Justice, documents the role of Reynolds (among others) in both the Center for New Black Leadership and the Center for Equal Opportunity in leading the legal and political charge against affirmative action policies, heavily funded by major right-wing foundations. "The appointment of Reynolds might be less tragic were it an isolated instance," said IDS's Ross. "But this appointment is merely a symptom of a much larger agenda--that is, nothing less than the complete dismantling of our nation's hard-won and carefully constructed system for ensuring racial and gender justice." Reynolds first earned his ultraconservative credentials as a legal analyst for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a think tank that opposes affirmative action and diversity policies. He has been active in the Civil Rights Practice Group of the Federalist Society, and in 1997-98 he served as president and legal counsel to the Center for New Black Leadership, where he continued to serve as a member of the board. Three of the Center's leaders--Gerald Reynolds, Brian Jones, and Peter Kirsanow--have all been selected by the Bush administration for high-level posts dealing with civil rights and diversity issues. Writing in the Washington Times in 1997, Reynolds criticized the "civil rights industry" and called affirmative action "a corrupt system of preferences, set-asides and quotas." "With this latest appointment," warned Ross, "every woman, every person of color, and every concerned citizen has been put on notice that this administration is looking to turn back the clock on civil rights--an agenda that IDS has meticulously documented in its newest study." Assault on Diversity: An Organized Challenge to Racial and Gender Justice will be published this July by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Pre-publication copies are available from IDS for members of the press. For more information, or to speak with Alfred Ross, please contact John Tessitore, IDS Communications Director, at 212 423-9237. |